[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5720-H5726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE'S BLUEPRINT TO SAVE AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Auchincloss). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Hern) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Oklahoma?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, America is in crisis. Inflation is at its 
highest in four decades. Drugs, weapons, and all other manner of 
contraband, along with hundreds of thousands of unvetted migrants, are 
pouring over our southern border with almost no resistance. Our 
national debt is over $30 trillion, a sum of money that most people 
cannot even begin to comprehend.
  Suffice to say, the past 18 months of Democratic rule have been a 
disaster. The American people are sick and tired of their government 
recklessly spending their tax dollars while families struggle to put 
food on the table and fill up their gas tanks.
  Can you blame them? Families across the country are sitting at home 
trying to make ends meet while the Federal Government runs around and 
spends their money like it is going out of style.
  President Biden often likes to tout his understanding of kitchen-
table economics. However, the so-called budget that the President 
produced a few months ago never balances and adds

[[Page H5721]]

trillions of dollars to our national debt over the next 10 years. There 
isn't a single kitchen table in the country where you can spend more 
than you make year after year and survive financially.
  One of Speaker Pelosi's most famous phrases is: Show me your budget, 
and I will show you your values. It is plain to see that Democrats care 
little for financial responsibility and a strong American economy. They 
won't even draft a budget.
  I have been in Congress 4 years, and under Speaker Pelosi's 
leadership, the Democrats have not created a single budget in the House 
Budget Committee. If Congress continues down this path, we will add 
$15.1 trillion to the debt this decade, $24.2 trillion in the 2030s, 
and $41.8 trillion in the 2040s. These are incomprehensible numbers.
  It is long past time to return to a state of fiscal stability. That 
is where the Republican Study Committee's budget comes in. Our 
Blueprint to Save America isn't just hyperbole. It is a no-nonsense 
plan that slashes spending, reduces deficits, and bolsters our economy, 
all things that the President's budget fails to do.
  It is the most pro-life budget that the RSC has ever produced. It 
ensures the protection of Americans' constitutional rights. It 
solidifies our national security and secures our southern border. It 
saves Medicare and Social Security from insolvency.
  While the President's budget increases spending to $73 trillion and 
taxes to $58 trillion, our budget decreases spending by $6.7 trillion, 
all while balancing in just 7 years. This is exactly what our country 
needs right now.
  Tonight, we are going to hear from the hardworking men and women who 
helped create this budget and who are committed to putting these 
policies into action next year.
  I thank all the members of the Budget and Spending Task Force for all 
of their extremely hard work over the past months, as well as Chairman  
 Jim Banks for trusting me with chairing this task force for a second 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), 
my friend from the 12th District, a member of the Education and Labor 
Committee, and a member of our task force.

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time and 
for his hard work.
  Mr. Speaker, it has been a year-and-a-half of President Biden and 
Washington Democrats' disastrous tax-and-spend policies, and American 
families are feeling the effects of rising inflation in their 
paychecks, at the gas pumps, and in the grocery store.
  Instead of working to eliminate wasteful government spending, the 
President's 2023 budget calls for the highest sustained spending burden 
in American history, $73 trillion over 10 years, all at the expense of 
our children and grandchildren, who will be forced to pay for this 
outrageous spending and debt.
  Going to Speaker Pelosi's ``Show me your budget, and I will show you 
what you value,'' I have my granddaughter with me tonight. I value her 
future. I value the fact that she is not going to have to pay for this 
spending, that she will be able to keep more of the money she earns 
instead of having the government take it to pay for Speaker Pelosi's 
and President Biden's liberal agenda.
  The Republican Study Committee's budget is a departure from 
Democrats' irresponsible policies and a return to fiscal sanity for 
American families.
  Republicans have built a comprehensive plan that balances the Federal 
budget in just 7 years, works to eliminate waste, and enables Americans 
to keep more of their hard-earned money.
  Growing up in America, raising a family, and running a business 
taught me that budgets matter.
  After reading President Biden's 2023 budget, it is clear he doesn't 
have a clue on how to budget responsibly. It is time we stop leaving 
financial disaster for the next generation.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Hern and my colleagues on the 
Republican Study Committee for their work in putting forth a 
responsible budget that meets the needs of the American people, places 
the American people first, and doesn't cater to the wishes of Joe Biden 
and Nancy Pelosi.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his hard work over 
the last 6 months to arrive at this budget. It is not a conservative 
budget; it is an all-of-America budget. It is what all Americans have 
to do, create a budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany), 
another member of the task force and a member of the Committee on 
Natural Resources, from Wisconsin's Seventh District.
  Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership 
and giving me the opportunity to speak here tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, while it is not surprising that Congress' budget process 
is a total and utter failure, the good news is that there are solutions 
to cut down on excessive spending, balance our budget, and prevent the 
world's largest economy from self-destructing.
  The American people know this. When you go back home and talk to the 
American people, they know what is going on here is wrong. They know 
that the family checkbook only goes so far. Choices have to be made. 
They know the American family's checkbook out here in Washington, D.C., 
should live under the same constraints.
  The solution is not to propose a budget with the highest sustained 
levels of spending since World War II, as President Biden has done, or 
to spend taxpayers' dollars at a faster pace than at any point in 
history, as Congress has done the past 2 years. The solution is to stop 
spending like there is no tomorrow and be fiscally responsible.
  With inflation at a 40-year high, gas prices shattering new records, 
and home prices surging, as the gentleman from Oklahoma said, I believe 
every effort must be made to rein in wasteful Washington spending and 
ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being thrown down the drain.
  Simply put, instead of spending money as fast as Joe Biden leaves for 
a Delaware vacation, it is time for fiscal responsibility in 
Washington. This includes implementing good-government reforms, like 
balancing our budget for the first time in over 20 years, which this 
budget by the RSC does.
  I thank the chairman for including a piece of legislation that I 
introduced called the Agriculture Civil Rights and Equality Act, ACRE.
  You might remember last year, Democrats in the American Rescue Plan 
provided billions in debt relief assistance to some farmers, while 
excluding others, based entirely on the color of their skin. That is 
detestable. That is un-American.
  The ACRE Act will ensure that this never happens again by explicitly 
barring the USDA from discriminating against or granting preferential 
treatment to any person, in whole or in part, based on race. Taxpayers 
shouldn't be forced to finance unfair, unconstitutional racial quota 
systems.
  One of the main reasons I ran for this office is the same reason that 
I ran in 2010. In Wisconsin, we had a $3 billion deficit. We all 
remember, after the 2008 election, the policies that were put in place 
in the ensuing 2 years were disastrous for America. Sounds familiar, 
doesn't it? The same thing is a rewind from back in that period of 
time.
  I told my constituents we can fix the budget problems we had in 
Wisconsin. Some people said: Yeah, we hear that all the time. I said: 
You give us a decade, and we will get it done. We did exactly that.
  Over the three terms that I sat on the budget writing committee in 
the State of Wisconsin, if you look at where their budget is now as a 
result of the little bit of work that I contributed to, along with my 
colleagues in the State legislature, we fixed those budget problems in 
Wisconsin. Now there is the largest rainy day fund in the history of 
Wisconsin. This past budget returned $2 billion to the taxpayers of the 
State. That is fiscal responsibility.
  We can do the same here in Washington, D.C., but it is going to 
require the will to do it. We can do it over the next decade, as the 
chairman said. We get to balance in 7 years here. This is what the 
American people are looking for. They want us to be fiscally 
responsible because it will lead to more opportunity and prosperity 
here in America and ensure American liberty for the future.

  Mr. Speaker, I urge both Democrats and Republicans to say ``yes'' to 
the

[[Page H5722]]

RSC budget, because it is good for America.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Wisconsin for his 
words.
  What you just heard is what most of America experiences in our 
individual families, our businesses, our cities, and our States. They 
have to balance their budget. It is hard work. It doesn't know any 
partisanship. It is constitutional and has to be done.
  One of the first, primary things we should be doing as Members of 
Congress is being good stewards of American taxpayer dollars. But what 
I fear is that after people have been here for a period of time we lose 
sight of that. It is not our money; it is the American people's money.
  We need to be accountable to that. We need to not be running up $30 
trillion debts and another $15 trillion on the horizon with the 
President's budget, the only Democrat budget that has been put out, 
that increases the debt to $45 trillion in the next 10 years, assuming 
he can get $7 trillion in additional taxes out of small businesses and 
individuals in America by allowing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's tax cuts 
to expire.
  The American people deserve better. We in Congress need to work hard 
together.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce), 
my dear friend from Pennsylvania's 13th District, who is on the Energy 
and Commerce Committee and a fellow classmate of mine.
  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Oklahoma for holding this incredibly important Special Order, and I 
thank him for yielding.
  Since day 1 of his Presidency, Joe Biden has chosen to weaponize his 
power to attack the energy industry and raise the price of gasoline for 
Pennsylvania drivers. This impact financially, for every Pennsylvanian, 
and in fact, for every American citizen, is being felt tonight as we 
hold this Special Order.
  By canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, by canceling new drilling 
leases, and by suggesting that the energy beneath the feet of my 
constituents is not an acceptable source of power, President Biden has 
turned his back on American energy. Sadly, he has turned his back on 
the American people. Because of the President's policies, America right 
now is drilling less oil than before the start of the COVID-19 
pandemic.
  To counter this war on American energy, I am proud to be working with 
my colleagues to introduce the Blueprint to Save America and to help 
return our Nation to energy dominance. Not just energy independence, 
but energy dominance.
  It is time to reverse President Biden's executive actions to stop new 
drilling. It is time to produce the coal, the oil, the natural gas, and 
the Marcellus shale that is needed to power our cities, our 
communities, and our grids.
  I thank the gentleman for holding this Special Order tonight to bring 
attention to the roadmap that we have built to return our country to 
that needed energy dominance.
  President Ronald Reagan once said that we maintain ``peace through 
strength.'' By rebuilding our energy infrastructure and once again 
becoming a net energy exporter, we can help our allies while at the 
same time lowering the price of energy right here in America.
  I look forward to continuing to advocate for this budget that will 
help my constituents back home in Pennsylvania.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I thank my colleague, Representative Hern, for 
holding this Special Order.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague from 
Pennsylvania for his words.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), a 
dear friend of mine, somebody that knows a lot about budgets and 
finances in his personal life, a member of the Financial Services 
Committee, and a longtime study of what it takes to balance a budget in 
America.
  Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Oklahoma (Mr. Hern), 
the chairman of our task force, and all of the members of the task 
force, for coming together and showing the American people that 
Congress can debate, analyze, think through, and consider what it takes 
to balance our budget. Kevin Hern has delivered that leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in favor of the Republican Study 
Committee's budget proposal for fiscal year 2023. I am proud to be a 
contributing member of the Republican Study Committee.
  This RSC budget would not only rein in reckless spending, but it 
would also balance the Nation's budget over the next decade.

  By making President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, this 
budget would provide hardworking American families with immediate 
relief, something we desperately need amid Joe Biden's highest 
inflation in four decades.
  This budget also works toward strengthening our national security, 
starting with the crisis at our southwest border. Last month, Mr. 
Speaker, Customs and Border Protection reported that 234,416 illegal 
migrant encounters occurred along our border, the highest 1-month total 
ever recorded. This budget would restore the Trump-era policies that 
secured our border and kept our communities safe, preventing startling 
statistics like that one I just noted.
  This budget is sensible, it is realistic, and it is beneficial for 
all of our American families.
  I am pleased that two of my legislative items that I have placed 
priority on in this Congress were included in this budget package: The 
Price Stability Act and the Social Security Disability Insurance Return 
to Work Act.
  First, the Price Stability Act, which I was pleased to introduce 
earlier this year alongside my good friend and colleague, Byron 
Donalds, from Florida. At a time when the American people are currently 
spending an additional $460 a month, Mr. Speaker, nearly $5,000 more 
this year than people were spending last year to keep up with President 
Biden's inflation, the rising cost of gas at the pump, and groceries at 
the store, this bill would have the Federal Reserve focus on a single 
mandate, that of price stability, concentrating on keeping prices down, 
and preventing inflation from stealing from American families.
  The second bill, the Social Security Disability Insurance Return to 
Work Act, which I reintroduced this year, would restructure the Social 
Security Administration's disability classification system to provide 
further opportunities to individuals with disabilities who can and want 
to get back to work. That is important, because too many people go on 
our Social Security disability system and don't get back to the 
workforce. This provides them financial incentives, training, and 
opportunity to go back to work, something our workforce and our 
employers desperately need. It gives dignity to those who can get back 
into the workforce.

                              {time}  1945

  These policies would both reduce government spending while ensuring 
that we put the needs of the American people first.
  I thank the Republican Study Committee chairman,   Jim Banks, Task 
Force Chairman Hern, for their hard work and leadership in developing 
this budget. This commonsense legislative agenda combats inflation 
while supporting a healthy economy. It works for the betterment of our 
families long-term.
  I am proud of the provisions that were included in the budget. I am 
happy to express my support for the budget and for the work of the task 
force.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for his 
words and for his personal knowledge of how the budget is so important 
to all the American people.
  You have heard a lot from my colleagues about pieces of legislation 
to be included in this budget. Some 203 pieces of legislation by some 
82 Members of the Republican Party have been included in this budget to 
design and develop and produce a balanced budget for all Americans. All 
Americans sitting at their table, they don't look and see first if they 
are Democrat or Republican. They don't care about politics when it 
comes to spending.
  Members of Congress talk about how they care about the least of us in 
our economy across America. If we cared, we would sit down and work 
together to produce a balanced budget, one like we haven't seen in over 
20 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore), my 
colleague

[[Page H5723]]

from Utah's First Congressional District, and an outstanding freshman 
member on the Armed Services Committee.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Hern for 
organizing this Special Order tonight and for his leadership on the 
Republican Study Committee.
  Mr. Speaker, I frequently reach out to my constituents and conduct 
polling, if you will, on what are the issues that matter most to them. 
And at the top of the list, every single time, is debt and deficit. It 
is constantly debt and deficit. I know that is on the minds of many 
Americans, but particularly in Utah, where we are so fiscally smart 
that we have a balanced budget, and we have a rainy day fund. We are 
still the most philanthropic State in volunteer time and dollars than 
anywhere else in the Nation. But we care so deeply about being smart 
fiscally that what I ultimately take from this, and as I look back on 
the last 20 or so years of our inability to do this, Americans need 
confidence that their Congress, that their government can actually do 
something practical and reasonable. And that is what we have here in 
front of us, is a plan.
  Americans need to know that there is a plan to be able to inject 
fiscal responsibility again into what they have not seen for too long.
  Like everywhere in the Nation, Utah families are burdened with 
painfully inflated prices at the gas pump, grocery store, and more. The 
average American household is paying hundreds more than they would for 
the same goods that they purchased just a year ago.
  Despite repeated Republican warnings of excessive Federal spending 
and what it would do to our economy, Democrats have continued to vote 
for massive spending bills. As a father to four young boys, I know we 
must provide for the next generation a more stable economic outlook for 
their financial success. It is why I ran for Congress.
  However, achieving a balanced budget after over 20 years of 
consistent deficit spending is a very tall task. And when I decided to 
run for Congress and I made this a key part of my platform, I knew it 
was going to be a very tall task.
  On top of increasing Medicare and Social Security spending, the 
Congressional Budget Office estimates that over the next 10 years 
interest costs will total $8.1 trillion. The longer we don't address 
this issue, the larger the hill we must climb. Even so, leaders from 
both parties have historically come to the table to build solutions, 
and we must rise to the occasion.
  The Republican Study Committee has worked dutifully to chart our path 
forward. This plan is outlined in the Blueprint to Save America. This 
roadmap provides a fiscally sound path to balancing our budget in 7 
years, protecting our border, bolstering our Nation's defense, 
expanding workforce opportunities, making the successful Tax Cuts and 
Jobs Act permanent, and so much more.
  This budget is--in the words of Congressman Hern--for all Americans. 
All Americans--not just Republicans--need a balanced budget. This issue 
matters to Utahns, which is why I convened a debt and deficit task 
force in my own district to get their input and have spent countless 
hours as I have worked with my colleagues to know what exactly we can 
do going forward.
  We must be committed to reversing our economic policies that are 
hurting Americans and get us on the right track.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague.
  Mr. Speaker, as we look at inflation, and we heard one of my 
colleagues talk about it earlier, it says it is 8.6 percent inflation 
caused by excessive spending. We have heard this from many of the past 
treasurers under the Obama administration. We have heard the current 
Secretary of the Treasury admit that she got it wrong last year, that 
excessive spending drove the inflation that we are seeing today.
  The problem is that most Americans don't believe the 8.6 percent. I 
mean when you look at gas prices up over 100 percent since Biden took 
office. If you look at hot dogs--something as simple as an all-American 
hot dog--up 64 percent; milk up 32 percent. And the numbers go on and 
on and on.
  The American people are struggling. We can do better. We must do 
better. We must produce a balanced budget, get it on the floor to have 
it voted on.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), my 
dear friend, a member of the Committee on Financial Services, a very 
innovative member.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Kevin Hern, from the 
great State of Oklahoma not only for his leadership on the Republican 
Study Committee Budget and Spending Task Force--ably chairing that 
committee--but also as an advocate for more domestic energy production 
to deal with this energy crisis.

  Like your constituents in Oklahoma, my constituents in rural Kentucky 
are feeling the pain. I was just with some farmers in Fleming County, 
Kentucky, on Friday when we were back in the district. And one of the 
farmers stood up, and he said: I don't know where you get your numbers 
in Washington, Congressman, but 8.6 percent doesn't sound right for us 
in Fleming County.
  It is more than twice that. It is painful to fill up the diesel in 
our tractor. It is impossible for us to fill up our trucks to get 
around to move our produce. This is not 8.6 percent. You all don't know 
what the real number is and how it affects real Americans.
  That is how bad this inflation crisis is. But I rise in strong 
support of this Republican Study Committee's proposed Federal budget. 
Our Nation is over $30 trillion in debt. This debt crisis threatens the 
long-term prosperity of every American. It is that debt, and it is that 
overspending, Mr. Speaker, that has helped to usher in this historic 
inflation crisis that is crushing my constituents in Fleming County and 
so many other middle-class Americans across this country.
  The RSC budget restores fiscal responsibility to Washington by 
balancing the Federal budget within 10 years and rescuing America from 
bankruptcy, stopping the spending binge in this town.
  Let's be clear, we will never balance the Federal budget if Democrats 
continue their spending spree. We will never balance the budget 
continuing this reckless deficit-producing fiscal policy and 
threatening tax hikes in this ``build back better'' calamity that fails 
to raise revenue, but instead would crush economic growth and actually 
diminish the tax base.
  We will also never balance the budget if the Biden administration 
continues its inexplicable war on American energy, which is key to 
economic growth, key to reducing the deficit. That is why I commend RSC 
Budget and Spending Task Force chairman, Kevin Hern, for including my 
legislation in the budget, the Fair Access to Banking Act.
  This legislation, the Fair Access to Banking Act, protects key 
American industries, such as energy producers, from discrimination by 
banks and lenders who politicize access to capital to satisfy the 
radical agenda of climate extremists.
  And here is the irony: We all care about the environment, especially 
farmers. We care about the environment. They are the ultimate 
environmentalists. But what sense does it make to deprive financing to 
the very energy companies that can innovate our way to solutions to the 
climate issue.
  When President Biden was sworn into office, gas prices averaged $2.36 
across the country. This month, gas prices reached $5 nationally for 
the first time--and they are on their way to $6 a gallon.
  In less than 2 years, our Nation went from energy dominant to energy 
desperate. And yet, the Biden administration continues to push ESG 
investments and regulations such as the SEC's new climate risk 
disclosure rule designed to choke off investment in energy production.
  The Biden administration for sure is blocking construction of the 
Keystone XL pipeline, another energy infrastructure. It is halting new 
lease sales for oil and gas. It is stonewalling over 4,400 permits to 
drill. It is thwarting new large-scale refineries. And this has all 
contributed to constraining energy supply, contributing to inflation.
  But ground zero in this war against domestic energy production is the 
Biden administration's weaponization

[[Page H5724]]

of financial regulation to redirect capital away from fossil energy. 
The European financial sector, Wall Street banks, large, woke asset 
managers have all started the trend of politicizing capital allocation 
through the environmental, social, and governance movement. But the 
Biden administration's Security and Exchange Commission is now making 
matters worse by proposing a regulation that would force every public 
company to disclose reams of immaterial and unreliable information 
about the Green House gas emissions arising from their operations, the 
producers of energy they consume, and even the activities of their 
suppliers and customers.
  This 534-page monstrosity marks the transformation of the SEC from an 
independent agency dedicated to investor protection to an unaccountable 
and politicized bureaucracy intent on advancing radical environmental 
policy over which it has neither jurisdiction nor competency.
  Not only does this regulation discriminate against affordable, 
reliable energy by redirecting capital away from the American energy 
sector, it directly conflicts with the SEC's mission to protect 
investors. While asset managers continually prioritize ESG funds, the 
fees for those funds are actually, on average, 43 percent higher than 
nonESG funds.

  Stocks and many ESG-related exchange-traded funds have elevated 
price-to-earnings multiples precisely because investment returns are 
sacrificed for nonpecuniary factors and policy objectives like social 
justice, diversity quotas, and lower carbon emissions.
  It is time for us to stand up for American energy dominance. It is 
time for us to stand up for the American energy sector. It is time for 
us to stand up to retail investors who depend on returns instead of 
some woke political agenda that, frankly, they don't care about.
  My farmers in Fleming County depend on returns. They depend on 
affordable electricity. Washington is out of touch with the reality and 
the hardships of American savers and American workers who can't afford 
Biden's inflation. That is why we need this budget.
  Now more than ever we must defend and encourage investments in 
American energy production to lower costs for Americans at the pump.
  Mr. Speaker, the duel visions for the future of America on this issue 
could not be clearer. On the one hand, Congressional Democrats are 
doubling down on a dangerous agenda in the middle of a generational 
energy crisis at cost to millions of middle-class Americans. Out of 
touch.
  On the other hand, Republicans are renewing our commitment through 
the Fair Access to Banking provision contained in this budget to 
require lending to be based on risk-based metrics, not on the woke 
politics of the day.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand with my Republican colleagues in 
support of this budget. I am proud to stand with Americans who depend 
on energy independence and energy dominance and affordable, reliable 
energy.
  I ask all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand with 
the American people, not with woke Wall Street, not with large asset 
managers who put politics ahead of returns. Vote for the Republican 
Study Committee budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the leadership of my friend from Oklahoma.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his very poignant 
words on where America is right now and our ability to, once again, 
return to energy dominance if we just get out of the way.
  We were there some 16 months ago, 18 months ago, and we saw energy 
prices at the pump at $2.39. All of America needs to hear that: $2.39 
until policies of the Biden administration came on the scene. Now, we 
are over $5 across America, with $6 on the near horizon.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).
  Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Hern of Oklahoma and the 
Republican Study Committee's Budget Task Force for their diligent work 
in putting together this year's Republican Study Committee budget. 
Thank God we have a budget. This important document lays out a road map 
to restore fiscal sanity in America.
  We are in a dire fiscal state. We here in Congress know it, and the 
American people, more importantly, know it as well. President Biden and 
Speaker Pelosi's reckless spending has led to 40-year high inflation, 
proving once again that we simply cannot spend our way to prosperity.
  Our national debt has grown by $7 trillion since the COVID pandemic 
began. Today, it totals more than $30 trillion.
  I have a wonderful constituent who puts the debt amount on his 
building every single day on a main thoroughfare, a guy named Frank 
Suits, who is a great American. He puts it out there just so the people 
know how much we are spending and how this isn't making us prosperous, 
especially in New York.
  This is larger than our gross domestic product. In the face of this 
sobering reality, what does President Biden propose? Spending even 
more. His proposed budget increases spending by over 66 percent over 10 
years and calls for $73 trillion--with a t--in new spending. Under 
President Biden's plan, the United States will reach the highest 
sustained spending limit in our Nation's history.
  This is not how we jump-start an economy, control runaway inflation, 
and deliver for the American people. The budget proposed by the 
Republican Study Committee takes a different approach. It focuses on 
reining in wasteful spending, balancing our budget for once, and 
helping those in need while living within our means and focusing on 
balancing the budget within 7 years.
  The Republican Study Committee budget also includes a bill I 
introduced, the Transparency and COVID-19 Expenditures Act. This 
important legislation would require a full audit of and report on 
Federal spending during the pandemic. With countless reports of fraud, 
waste, and abuse, Americans have a right to know how their tax dollars 
are being spent, how they were spent, and if they were spent the way 
they were intended.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored that this bill is included in the 
Republican Study Committee budget, further demonstrating the Republican 
Study Committee's commitment to transparency, accountability, fiscal 
responsibility, and just plain good governance.
  Inflation in the United States continues to outpace much of the 
developed world. It is clear to me and to the American people that this 
isn't Putin's price hike. It is Biden's price hike.
  Rather than doubling down on failed policies of the past and spending 
even more of your money, our money, it is time for Congress to turn 
around this ship, restore fiscal sanity to Washington, and put our 
Nation back on a path to economic prosperity.
  Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to Congressman Hern for his leadership and 
especially his leadership on energy. What a lot of people don't realize 
about New York State is we have among the richest shale reserves, the 
Marcellus and Utica Shale, that we can't touch because of New York's 
failed policies.
  We could bring economic prosperity. We could bring national security, 
energy security, to our Nation just from New York State and really just 
bring our State around. That is something that we are fighting in New 
York.
  We hope with your leadership out in Oklahoma and across this Nation, 
working with the Republican Study Committee members, which I am so 
proud to be part of this great group, that we finally have a budget. We 
are putting out a plan. We are telling the American people that we have 
a plan, and we have a plan to win. We will make sure that the American 
people come back and that America sees the greatness it once had.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Hern for doing these Special Orders, for 
highlighting this plan, for taking a leading role. We are grateful, and 
we certainly could use a dose of prosperity in upstate New York.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York. It is 
refreshing for all of America to hear that New York cares about 
America. We hear so many times that nobody cares. It is so refreshing 
to hear your conservative values about something as simple as a 
balanced budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), 
a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee. He is from another

[[Page H5725]]

State where we always assume that nobody cares about fiscal 
responsibility in America.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Hern's strong effort in 
helping shepherd our budget concept through the RSC to get back to 
fiscal responsibility and make sure it is on the front burner.
  I am also pleased to follow my good colleague from New York, too. You 
have California and New York, and if you throw in Illinois, you don't 
see a whole lot of conversation coming out that you want the country to 
emulate as far as fiscal responsibility. I hope that is a bit of a 
breath of fresh air.
  We are looking at the situation we are in right now as a country. It 
is just unbelievable, in this last 15, 16, 18 months, just how far it 
has turned upside down. We can't blame it all on COVID. We have to look 
at the policies that have been put in place.
  Yes, we did spend a lot of money in Washington, D.C., on the COVID-
era problems. Some of it is justified. Some of it is completely out of 
control.
  There are still COVID dollars sitting in little pots somewhere that 
people are envying and wanting to turn into things that are completely 
unrelated, just make it slush-fund-type stuff. That is not right 
because these are the American people's dollars. This is the American 
people's debt.
  Unfortunately, we are just adding debt to it. We don't really have 
sustained income to back up the money we have been borrowing from the 
future on this. When you couple that with the inflation that we are 
dealing with now, when we are looking at interest rates that are edging 
up in order to basically try, essentially, to put the brakes on 
government spending, that is what has driven this.
  The higher numbers for interest rates, for payments on American debt, 
are going to devour our ability to budget on things that we actually do 
want to do and care about around here. If the interest rates and 
interest payments are so high, we can't do the elective part of our 
national budgeting. That is going to be horrendous for the American 
people.
  Mr. Hern, when we are looking at the overall inflation picture with 
the numbers we are talking about earlier, 8.6 percent, we know it is a 
lot higher. I can echo what Mr. Barr was saying a while ago. My 
farmers--I am a farmer myself in my real life--we are not seeing a mere 
8 percent on fertilizer, diesel, parts, tires, service calls, on 
everything. It is a much higher number than that.
  My family grows rice and has been doing it for nearly 100 years. My 
colleagues and my neighbors have been doing the same thing. How are we 
going to afford to be able to put food on the table for the American 
people that is affordable? I just don't see that. With what you are 
dealing with in Oklahoma on energy--your energy helps us.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, it is 45 percent of the economy in Oklahoma. 
The Biden administration and the Democrats have made--it is very well-
known. The President has said time and time again, and he said it just 
in the last week, that the high gas prices in America, and that 
Americans are suffering, are part of the grand transition plan off of 
fossil fuels to electric vehicles and others.
  Yet, in polling, when you ask the young Americans today where they 
think electricity comes from, the response is the wall, not knowing how 
electricity is actually generated in our generation plants around the 
country. The fact that our grid can't even supply what they are 
proposing to quickly convert our country to, and would destroy 
economies throughout our Nation, it is really a tragedy to see what has 
happened.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, it is fascinating that he would say that. 
You plug it into the wall.
  I just saw a recent interview with a major figure with a major car 
manufacturer introducing and talking about their electric vehicles. 
They were questioned at that press conference: Where is the power 
coming from to charge this electric car?
  Well, from that building right over there.
  Okay. It is a building, but it is not a generation plant.
  Well, I don't really know.
  Another person in the group answered and said: Well, this is powered 
by a source that is about 90 percent coal-driven.
  I am not against coal. I think coal is great. It has powered our 
country for many decades. It is extremely important and shouldn't just 
be phased out. It is still at least 35 percent.
  The naivety of a major manufacturer not understanding that the 
electricity has to come from somewhere, and it is going to have to be 
somehow reasonably priced in order to make it somehow work for this big 
dream they have of electrifying everything, it is unbelievable what the 
people are going to face.
  As Mr. Hern mentioned, President Biden called it the incredible 
transition. The people I know, the regular folks, haven't been asked if 
they want to transition to electric vehicles or an electric stove or 
anything else. They want to just stick with what they have because you 
are looking at the price of electric vehicles, which are $50,000, 
$60,000, $70,000. The price is bumping up, and they have to recall them 
because things aren't working quite right.
  We are force-feeding something just because government can mandate 
and pass a law that--hey, we are just going to require that you do it. 
Well, the market and technology don't always keep up with the whims of 
a dream that somebody would have in a bureaucracy.
  Phase them in, but we are looking at an issue that is being force-fed 
in the Biden plan to have an incredible transition. It is incredibly 
painful to the American public.
  That is why the direction that the RSC budget is trying to go is to 
achieve balance finally. If we are going to service more and more debt 
at a higher interest rate, and we keep adding the numbers, as my 
colleague from New York was talking about--if the Biden plan calls for 
$73 trillion of increased spending over what we are already doing at a 
deficit over the next 10 years, we have big trouble.
  Government doesn't always do that well with a dollar spent. In the 
hands of the American people, they are going to make the best decisions 
for their families on: Do they want to upgrade their car? Do they need 
to add a room to their house for an expanded family? Are they going to 
redo their garage or redo their roof? Maybe they are even going to take 
a vacation if they can afford the $7 gas in California to run an RV and 
go see Yellowstone or something.
  It is amazing how this place continues to think that the massive 
deficit spending is going to somehow benefit the economy. It doesn't 
work that way. Inflation drives higher prices to the end-users, driven 
by government spending. We have to get it under control.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Hern's work is really stellar on trying to put this 
out there. This should really be nonpartisan, Republicans and 
Democrats. The blueprint for this would be back in the mid-1990s when 
we achieved a balanced budget, I believe it was 4 years in a row, with 
President Clinton coming to the table and working with Newt Gingrich 
and Senator Dole and others on actually passing four balanced budgets 
in a row.

  That is credit everybody can take for having a strong economy at the 
time. I think it would still be a legacy of the Reagan and Bush years, 
where we put things back on track of having an income that they 
benefited from in that context.
  Mr. Hern, what do you see as far as that blueprint of balancing back 
then as something we can emulate here?
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I had the very great fortune of being 
introduced to politics by the late Senator Tom Coburn.
  When he was running for Senate in 2004, he quickly gained the title 
of ``Doctor No'' because he was always pushing for responsible 
spending. He wasn't against spending; he said we just should pay for 
it. He wasn't against helping people; he said we should just pay for it 
like you do at home, like you do in your business, like you do in your 
cities or your States.
  He was ridiculed by many Members over his time in the Senate because 
he always pushed for fiscal conservatism, fiscal responsibility for 
American taxpayer dollars.
  In 2004, when he ran for Senate, and he spoke about this on the 
campaign

[[Page H5726]]

trail, the national debt was $7.3 trillion. Here we are, 18 years 
later, and we are approaching $31 trillion. I would say he understood a 
little bit about being responsible with taxpayer dollars.
  As you just alluded to, there should be no pride in either one of the 
parties taking this acknowledgment of having a balanced budget. It 
should be just what we do as Congress.
  This should be a nonconversation. We should produce a balanced 
budget, as we did under Newt Gingrich's leadership. As he just 
acknowledged this week, it is time for us to return to the era of the 4 
years where we had balanced budgets and a divided government, where the 
House and the Senate were Republicans and the White House was the 
Democrat.
  President Clinton knew it was the right thing to do. He knew that we 
had to be more responsible for taxpayer dollars and joined up and 
created a bipartisan budget that lasted until the attack on us in 2001. 
We have to get back to that.
  Our Nation is under attack by the debt load that we are having. The 
interest on our debt, much of which we will pay to China because that 
is who we are getting our money from, is overtaking us. In the next 4 
years, the spending on our mandatory interest on our debt will surpass 
what we spend on protecting this great Nation and the support of our 
men and women in uniform.
  As we look at this, I just want to thank my colleagues from 
California, New York, and across this great Nation who have worked on 
this issue, not just on this budget and spending task force, but on 
this issue. The very core of who they are and why they came to Congress 
was to be responsible to the American taxpayers, not just to the ones 
who elected them but to all Americans, Democrat, Republican, to be 
fiscally responsible for their money, their hard-earned money that they 
make back home. They go to work every day and send tax dollars up to 
Congress. We have to do better.

                              {time}  2015

  The American taxpayers are much more responsible with their dollars 
in their pockets than we are here in Washington, D.C. We need to return 
the American taxpayers' dollars back to them. We need to be less on the 
spending side and more on acknowledging that American taxpayers are 
smart. They will spend their money in their communities better than we 
will. That is why we need to rebalance our government.
  So as I hear from constituents back home, they are worried that no 
one in Washington cares about our spending anymore. They are worried 
that there is no one left--even Republicans--who care about balancing 
the budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I can tell you I do. You heard the Members tonight. You 
heard my friend from California talk about how he cares. He has cared 
since he got here, and all the members on the Republican Study 
Committee care.
  Balancing the budget isn't a conservative idea. This isn't a budget 
just for one party. This budget is our blueprint to save all 
Americans--all Americans--not just Republicans. We are not excluding 
Democrats. This is all Americans.
  When Congress spends less, the American people have more. That is at 
the center of what we do, what we are doing, and what we are here to 
talk about.
  I thank everybody, again, for coming and speaking tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________